Week 1: First Paragraph

John Evans is in no hurry to get married. The 25-year-old returned LDS missionary lives with his parents in east Salt Lake City. He works full time, pursuing classes at night for a degree in English (with minors in Spanish and business) at the University of Utah. With law school looming, he is building up his savings before courting seriously.

So let’s agree that you won’t hold another meeting unless you have sufficiently outlined it as a revelatory experience. If it isn’t, cancel it; it isn’t worth holding a meeting that is anything different.

In an August 2014 talk, Elder David A. Bednar, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, counseled church members to share "messages that are authentic, edifying and praiseworthy — and literally to sweep the earth as with a flood." General authorities and general auxiliaries for the church are becoming increasingly involved by posting to their officialFacebook and Twitter pages.

You might have missed what went on the last week, but we've put together our list of the week's most popular stories so you don't miss a beat. For November 24 through November 30, 2012, these are LDS Living’s top hits:

What converts find most compelling about a new religion, some say, is not the doctrine but the lives of those who believe it.

The day before my wife Lolly and I posted our now-notorious blog post about being married even though I'm homosexual, she and I were on a plane together, flying to Las Vegas. We were going down to celebrate our anniversary. We were nervous. We had made an incredibly terrifying decision: The Spirit had spoken clearly, and we knew that we were to publish that blog post. We were terrified to be taking that step. Our time on that flight was spent finishing the post and talking about what would happen when we pressed "publish." The reasons for our trepidation were many. Though we had no idea that it would go viral and that the next day our image would be plastered on news outlets all over the world, we were still very scared. We worried about how our ward would perceive us and how other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would react. We worried that old friends would judge us or would be critical of me, solely for my sexual orientation. We worried about our daughters. Would this affect them? We worried about the lasting nature of this choice once you share something like this publicly, there is no taking it back. We worried because there are just so many people good, upstanding people who have never personally encountered the issue of homosexuality and thus didn't yet know how to react to it.

5 Ways to Organize the Clutter and Keep the Memories

Teachers have a great responsibility to help the young people of the Church think clearly about gospel truths and how to apply them to the challenges they face, Elder Dallin H. Oaks said during the Church Educational System’s “Evening with a General Authority” February 8, during which he addressed seminary and institute instructors in the Tabernacle on Temple Square. Teachers of the youth and young adults of the Church are “vital to preparing the rising generation for their responsibilities in the Church and Kingdom of God,” he said.

The Mormon Channel recently posted this heartwarming video, featuring stunning images from the Church's Bible videos set to the music of "Nearer, My God, to Thee."